Paladin Balor
Paladin Balor is a halfling from Dorian Myth, and supposedly where the term Paladin itself comes from. Almost nothing about this man can be corroborated by history, even though legends say he only lived in 800 b.s.r. The Legends Paladin Balor is said to have been born during the Golden Age of the Dorry Hills, under King Maelgwyn the Unready. He was raised in the way expected of a mythical golden age, with great supplies of happiness, food, and love. He was a simple shepherd of sheep and breeder of Direrabbits for mounts in the hills east of Coralis, and lived a simple life with his wife and children. As in all myths, tragedy had to strike. The first signs of a darkness approaching came when plagues of verminous creatures and odd diseases began to increase, as well as a summer drought that went on for over half a year. Civil War broke out over the lack of food, with the people of the far western Dorry Hills hit the hardest, and attacking the capital of Coralis for the grain repositories. King Maelgwyn gained his epithet during this event for showing a complete lack of capacity for leadership. After a year of intense heat, a coalition of elves, humans, and halflings are said to have brought together wizards and clerics to try and end the plague, but no amount of magic could help. Pleaing to the gods, a message from the prophecy goddess Pharasma is written in the Epics as saying: "In the hills where Coral stood, On the eve of the 500th day, If the mine is looked o'er by mine own, The magic of the Paladin will take down the power of Summer with the Sun on his arm." The people of the time had no idea what a paladin was, but they believed that it might just be referring to Paladin Balor, who was found on a census role and brought to the capital. The scholars made guesses that he must be the man mentioned in the prophecy, and the best guess as to what should be done is to train him as a cleric of Sarenrae, goddess of the Sun. As his training began, it was obvious that Paladin could not make a connection to the goddess in the expected ways, and that a more terrible threat was begining. Swarms of the undead began to rise all around the Hills, and the Dorians finally realized that it was the goddess Lamashtu that had set this plague upon Gernon. Thinking all lost, Paladin went back to his fields and prayed. That night, the first miracle of Paladin came. Sarenrae herself came down to speak to Paladin, and told him that he would become her champion. Saying that he had no skill in the clerical arts, she said that he would be a new class of warrior, a holy knight with the power of a soldier and a cleric in one body. He became infused with the strength of the goddess, was given a magic shield and spear with the sunburst and angel of Sarenrae, and took his best buck Howell as his mount to the Capital. Presenting himself to the King and his councilers, Paladin told of how he had spoken to the goddess and now had gained her power. At first the clerics did not believe him, as he had did none of the rituals of a cleric, and yet he used magic despite that, only willing the magics through the sigil of Sarenrae on his shield. That night, the horde of undead reached the walls, but paladin rode out to meet them alone. With a burning light, and his ferocity on the field, his holy wrath swept 1 million undead from the land, without a single casualty to Coralis. After this fight ended, the power in him waned, and he believed his duty had ended, yet more was to come. Two weeks later, the drought had not ended, and a new darkness came from the east. A great black gate appeared about 30 miles east of Coralis, and locks on the western side were slowly becoming unlocked. A young friend of Paladin's, a cleric of Pharasma named Aeron, was studying the prophecy in a vain hope to try and find something that could save them. In the line, "If the mine is looked o'er by mine own", he thought that may mean if one of Pharasma's clerics, a person "owned" by the giver of the prophecy, searched in the great silver mines beneath Coralis, some great power may be found. Sure enough, at the bottom of the mine, digging with hope in his heart and a prayer on his lips, Aeron discovered a holy relic, the Stone of Light. This item would give Aeron the power to return any undead he touched to the void. The two of these warriors went out to the Black Gate with the entire army of the Halflings. On the 500th day since the drought began the gate opened, and a swarm of undead, demons, and at its head, the lieutenant of Lamashtu: Fjarn, a ghast barbarian; the Herald: Mother's Maw, a massive skull dripping with flames, maggots, and blood. The battle is said to have gone on for 7 days and 7 nights, but at the end, Paladin and Aeron killed the lieutenant and Herald, and used the combined power of Sarenrae's shield and The Stone of Light to banish the rest of the army back through the Gate, destroying the portal to this plain in the process. The rest of Paladin's life has conflicting reports, some saying he returned to his simple life at home, other's saying he took the throne for himself after the battle ended. The most popular stories place him at the side of Sarenrae after the battle, with him and his wife getting immortality to be a Herald for the Goddess for all time, as well as the tale that his daughter married the son of the King and mixed his bloodline with that of Coral the Great. Whatever the truth is, the myth certainly influenced the rise of the warrior priest Paladins across Gernon, the current Royal house of the Dorry Hills the Balors, and the inclusion of Sarenrae and Pharasma as two of the highest goddesses in the Dorian Pantheon. Category:Dorian Myth Category:Heralds Category:Legendary Heroes